Name Your Customers

What does handling cows have to do with handling customers?
     I’ll start by asking if you’ve seen “Temple Grandin,” the HBO-produced movie which won seven Primetime Emmys for chronicling the accomplishments of the Colorado State University professor of animal science. Along with her students, Prof. Grandin designs humane methods for handling livestock.
     Next, I’ll ask if you’ve heard of the Ig Noble Awards. You know about the Nobel Prizes. However, as I point out in my book, Sell Well, many people have been completely unaware of another set of awards, called the Ig Nobel Prizes. They are given out each year by the Annals of Improbable Research for studies that come across as so odd as to usually draw a chuckle.
     The 2009 Ig Nobel Award in Veterinary Medicine was awarded to Catherine Bertenshaw Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. Their research concluded that cows on commercial farms where cows are called by name will produce nearly 70 gallons per year more of milk than cows on commercial farms where cow names are considered silly.
     Naming a cow made it more likely the cow was treated as an individual rather than as part of a herd. As Temple Grandin is quoted as saying about cows on commercial farms, “We owe them some respect.”
     And that brings me around to what this all has to do with handling customers. Too often, we think of customers as a herd rather than as individuals. Too often, our staff forget to look at the customer and think, “The money this customer is spending here is helping to pay my salary, is helping to keep this store open so I can have a job.”
     Calling a customer by name is a reminder. It gives the person an individual identity. I recognize that you must be careful when using a name. Many people would be offended if you call them by their first name, sometimes because it seems overly familiar and sometimes because everybody they know calls them Bucky and nobody they know uses Edgar.
     So err on the side of the more formal, and if the customer gives you permission, ease up. Or stay with the formal. When people call me Dr. Sanders and I respond that they are welcome to call me Bruce, some of them then call me Dr. Bruce. That’s fine. It feels quite respectful.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

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